1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a surgical device and, more particularly, to an adapter assembly for selectively interconnecting a surgical end effector and a powered actuator device.
2. Background of Related Art
A number of proprietary drive systems for operating surgical devices that clamp tissue between opposing jaw structures and then join tissue by surgical fasteners have been developed by various surgical device manufacturers. Many of the existing surgical end effectors used in performing, for example, endo-gastrointestinal anastomosis procedures, end-to-end anastomosis procedures and transverse anastomosis procedures, typically require linear driving force in order to be operated.
Generally, the stapling operation is effected by cam bars that travel longitudinally through the staple cartridge and act upon staple pushers to sequentially eject the staples from the staple cartridge. Such cam bars are typically actuated by a trigger squeezed by an operator or a powered actuator device that provides rotary motion to deliver driving force. In the case of a powered actuator device that uses rotary motion to deliver driving force the rotary motion is not compatible with surgical end effectors that require linear driving force.
As such, in order to make the linear driven surgical end effectors compatible with the powered actuator devices that use rotary motion to deliver driving force, adapter assemblies that convert the output features of the powered actuator devices to match the work input requirements of end effectors are required.